Dear reader, due to popular demand, this year I have published a monthly forecast for all 12 signs for January. The annual Your Stars 2017 Report will be available to buy from January 1st.
Happy New Year!
Capricorn
Fancy an enforced holiday? Your horoscope is not much inclined to embrace 2017 with the professional brio that you have no doubt etched into your new year resolutions. For the first week at least – and it’s more like two weeks – there’s a lot of dawdling going on.
The principal factor in play is Mercury’s irksome backslide through the Goat’s skies until January 8th. Even then the communications planet is not back with you until the 13th (it has reversed into Sagittarius for a week), asking you to revise and reconsider plans before playing a mighty game of catch-up during the rest of the month.
Rather than spin your wheels, consider the delights of the social round, of hooking up with all those folks whose numbers you took with the promise that you would get together for an overpriced cup of coffee and, perhaps, a spot of intimacy. Venus and Mars in a crowded third house (siblings, chums, chatter) are certainly in favour, as are the sweet lunar aspects over the weekend of the 7th/8th (good moment for party and/or hot date). You need, too, to find time to stare at the full Moon of January 11/12, which being opposite you, requires you give partners lots of space. Or, if you are single, to be alert to others’ interest.
Thereafter, your role as head honcho and/or serial over-achiever is the one to embrace. Jupiter and Prometheus are planets with a very pushy (and largely benign) agenda in your personal year as the days around that full Moon may make clear. Ambitious, powerful individuals in your professional realm, and challenging scenarios close to home both loom at this point and continue to do so for the rest of 2017 (for more details consult Your Stars 2017).
The Aquarius new Moon of the 28th, as always, concerns your finances. No worries there, because only you have the key to the cellar where you store the hard-won loot. Still, with eclipses across your horoscope’s money axis this year, best go and rattle the lock to make sure it’s intact. Happy birthday.
Aquarius
Flat out after the festivities? Your horoscope promised a massive exchange of personal energies over the last month – You, alternately come-hither/go away. Other people, both obliging and annoying, often at the same time. Thanks to the lunar nodes changing signs in a couple of months’ time, learning to dance with and around significant others is one of 2017’s major themes- see Your Stars 2017 – although not so much in January. Until your birthday month begins on the 20th, it’s more a case of flop out and catch-up.
Professional duty calls, of course, but you will be better placed to handle it with the Sun in your skies (and February looks demanding, in a good way). Plus, with your cashflow zone hyper active during January, it’s time to assess the damage done to your credit card over the festivities, and to trawl the sales for a bargain or three.
Pisces
On your marks. You begin 2017 with Mars and Neptune in your skies along with a couple of asteroids, with Venus arriving on January 3; a perfect mix for a month of heavy social action, shameless self-promotion or one of those make-overs that deliver what women’s magazines term ‘the new you’ (though it’s usually the old one that shows up).
The world is in rewind – thanks to Mercury retrograde until the 8th – but the little communications planet is obligingly sited, not least for reunions and, from mid-month, business deals. Saturn continues to make its point about professional progress (painstaking, serious), about which you can read more In Your Stars 2017, but mostly this month you are asked to be unapologetically yourself (and with sloshy Neptune active consider a Dry January). The full Moon of the 12th is good for a hot date, as are the 30th/31st, when Luna is in the Fish’s domain.
Aries
And so the new year rumbles into being. You are likely as impatient as ever to get your teeth into the action but softly does it. A retrograde Mercury asks you to reassess your professional situation until, say, the full Moon of the 12th, while a slew of planets in the behind-the-scenes zone of your ‘scope suggests you have some deeply personal issues to straighten out.
Given the recent clash of Jupiter and Prometheus – the latter planet in your skies, the former in Libra – those may include relations with the spouse/lover/ex, an unfolding scenario given those two planets meet twice again in 2017, about which you can read more in Your Stars 2017. The Aquarian new Moon of January 20 is the real signal to start tearing round town to remind people of your role as leading lady/leading man. Firstly because Aquarius, for the Ram, equals plentiful company, and secondly because your ruling planet, hothead Mars, simultaneously arrives in your skies. Look out world.
Taurus
Your outreach to people who can support and assist you and keep a grin on your face is highlighted throughout January by your ruling planet, Venus, currently in what astro-tradition calls ‘exaltation’. Friendship and conviviality are the order of the month, a state of affairs to which you can contribute with good humour and tolerance. Who knows, perhaps somewhere in that nexus of cordiality a romantic liaison might nestle, not least around the full Moon of the 12th, when Venus and Neptune meet. The weekend of January 7/8 also comes with a silver star on it, thanks to Luna passing through the Bull’s skies.
The current lunation in earthy Capricorn is also about outreach, perhaps to associates or chums from across planet Earth’s five continents. That Mercury is backsliding until January 8 may throw arrangements into confusion – be patient. The lunation that arrives on January 28 is near the peak of your solar ‘scope, signalling professional politics with a sharper edge. It’s worth noting in your freshly acquired diary what happens in the last few days of the month, since Venus will be back here in April, thanks to its retrograde cycle, about which you can read more in Your Stars 201.
Gemini
Yours is sign of duality, and in January your horoscope is certainly a contradictory mix of the stern and the playful. Ongoing is the opposition of Saturn throughout the year to test your mettle, about which your astrologer has already written plenty and which is examined in further detail in Your Stars 2017. Underlining Saturn’s theme of profession and property is this month’s congregation of planets and asteroids atop your ‘scope, asking for something of a song and dance routine at work – match determination with charm and you look a winner.
Somewhere in that mix may lie a romantic dalliance with a fellow worker – if so it is as likely to flower in April as now. Keep your sensors alert, especially around the 9th and the 30th. The newly forged opposition of Jupiter and Prometheus – another ongoing aspect in ’17 – also highlights matters of the heart, the sort that may surprise and overwhelm you. Romance, creative outpouring or planetary jaunt – make room for a mad cavort in the new year.
Cancer
It’s six months since your birthday, and with the mighty Sun in opposition, nurse your energy levels with care. With Mercury also opposing and in retreat until January 8, old business is as good as new in any case. If you are handling or battling with a powerful organisation or individual, avoid headstrong decisions, not least at the full Moon of the 11/12th, which is in your skies. The protracted opposition of Pluto is a very demanding cycle for some Cancerians (say birthdays circa July 9) and one where instant solutions remain elusive.
Completely and gratifyingly different is the slew of planets in your fellow water sign of Pisces this month; ideal for pleasurable encounters, arty enterprises, competitive pursuits and a touch of travel. With Prometheus atop your ‘scope, shortly to be joined by Mars and Venus – an extended transit about which you can read more in Your Stars 2017 – you will need to be fighting fit for the professional challenges kicking in by the end of the month, so get your rest and recreation in now.
Leo
The current lunation in Capricorn (which kicked off on December 29), hits a minor key in your ‘scope, one involving mundane toil and keeping mind and body chipper, and with Mercury retrograde until the 8th, schedules look to be in a bothersome loop. Hey ho.
The rest of the planetary picture is unusually dynamic, however. The rare alignment of three heavyweight planet in fellow fire signs (plus a couple of asteroids) looks like a climactic moment in matters of the heart, whether you have in mind a dash for freedom with that certain someone (do people elope any more?), or a relationship turns out to have hit the buffers. Saturn, Jupiter and Prometheus repeat their alignment later in the year – see Your Stars 2017 – so make a note of what’s going down now in your diary.
Even the steady Eddies and Ediths among you are promised an unusual degree of intensity in your personal life, ditto those of you who have recently (as in last month) tripped over someone new and splendid. If you’re still searching, try pastures new. The weekend of the 13/14th finds a fat Moon in your skies to help. The new Moon of the 27th, in your house of significant others, offers a start-over moment for relationships and friendships.
Virgo
Virgos like not just to be on schedule but ahead of it. With your Mercury ruler in one of its pesky rewinds until January 8, that looks like a big ask. Either revise work in hand, conduct a purge of your possessions or – a novel idea – rest up. You appear to have plenty of delightful company to help you to do so, given that your complimentary sign of Pisces is stuffed with planets and asteroids.
With Venus moving more slowly than usual in opposition, it’s a fine month to be deep in a love affair, or to find one, and since the planet of romance will be revisiting this same zone of relationships in spring – its retrograde is detailed in Your Stars 2017 – not to take any encounters for granted. The full Moon of the 12th is a companionable moment, whether anything more touch-feely is involved or not. Mars is also in opposition until the 28th , so a frank exchange of views with you know who (or a fresh face) may also be involved – neither seek or shirk a showdown.
Money and property are also in the frame now, thanks to an unusual triangle of Saturn, Jupiter and Prometheus. Here the main thing is to take nothing for granted. Rather, apply the exactitude and rule-observance for which your sign is justly celebrated and ensure that if anyone is going to get caught out by a nasty surprise, it isn’t you.
Libra
As you may have twigged, since your birthday you are in a bold new cycle, where second best doesn’t really suffice. Jupiter, cruising through your skies, is the planet of well-being and hope, of stretching yourself beyond your comfort zone, and those are the qualities to carry into the new year and through to your next birthday.
That said, until the season of Aquarius arrives on January 20, you need to stay thoroughly grounded. Activity in Capricorn at the root of your ‘scope – a new Moon on December 29, a retrograde Mercury and a Sun-Pluto conjunction on January 7 – points you to the fundamentals of home and family and reminds you that blood is, indeed, thicker than mud. Duty must also be done to work commitments nd to the forces of officildom. Here, your Venus ruler is making n unusually slow transit – no need for showboating at this point of the year, honest graft will suffice.
The thrilling action lies with Jupiter and its current opposition to Prometheus, one that repeats twice in 2017 and whose full implications are considered in Your Stars 2017. These are planets of liberation, revolution even. Any situation in which you feel trapped is ripe to be overthrown, but especially relationships that have drifted into dull stalemate. Prometheus is no respecter of the status quo, and if your love life has an unconventional quality at present, so be it.
Scorpio
If your shiny new phone won’t spark into life or your car is coughing in a traffic jam, give things time. Mercury is not out of its retrograde cycle until January 8, and even then needs a few days to get up to speed. Thereafter the communications planet is super-obliging in terms of travel and wheeler-dealing. Since your cash zone remains occupied by skinflint Saturn, a bit of horse-trading may come in handy.
By way of compensation comes a swathe of planets in Pisces and the pleasure and party zone of your ‘scope, promising that even in the dark days of winter there is merriment to be had, romances to pursue, sporting prowess to be unleashed. Since the romance planet Venus will be back here in April – you will find a schedule in Your Stars 2017 – keep an eye on developments in the closing stretch of the month. The full Moon of the 11th/12th is also cannily starred.
Secrets and Scorpio go together like salt and pepper, and the current placement of Jupiter (until it reaches your skies at your birthday) ask you refresh your inner self, offer up a prayer and keep your most ambitious plans under wraps for now.
Sagittarius
Although Saturn is something of an astrological bogeyman, the taskmaster planet does force one to take significant decisions, often on a very mundane level; property, job changes and the like, and the full implications of Saturn’s final twelve months in your skies are outlined in Your Stars 2017.
So too the next nine months with your ruling planet lodged in Libra, which can ginger up both your working life and social sphere. In January the giant planet is making significant aspects to both Saturn and to Prometheus, suggesting something of a turn round or shake up in your non-mundane, emotional life. For single Centaurs, especially, the outlook over the next few months is far from dull, and in the short term you might like to ring Friday the 6th as a date to be out the house. Regardless of your relationship status, that messenger Mercury pays you a brief revisit between January 5 and 12 is fuel for your ever-burning fires. The new Moon of January 28 also promises to end the month on an upbeat note.
The cluster of planetary action at the root of your ‘scope, active all month, is about your domestic life and family. No cause for concern, but if you are up a ladder redecorating or bringing in the removal men, you’re in tune!